In 1975, the Broadway musical Chicago brought together a host of memes and myths, the gleefully subversive character of American musical comedy, the reckless glamor of the big-city newspaper, the mad ...
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In 1975, the Broadway musical Chicago brought together a host of memes and myths, the gleefully subversive character of American musical comedy, the reckless glamor of the big-city newspaper, the mad decade of the 1920s, the work of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon—two of the greatest talents in the musical’s history—and the Wild West gangsterville that was the city of Chicago itself. The tale of a young woman who murders her departing lover and then tricks the jury into letting her off, Chicago seemed too blunt and cynical at first. Everyone agreed it was show biz at its brilliant best, yet the public still preferred A Chorus Line, with its cast of innocents and sentimental feeling. Nevertheless, the 1996 Chicago revival is now the longest-running American musical in history, and the movie version won the Best Picture Oscar. As this text looks back at Chicago’s various moving parts, including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical, we see how the American theatre serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society.Less

All That Jazz : The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago

Ethan Mordden

Published in print: 2018-05-31

In 1975, the Broadway musical Chicago brought together a host of memes and myths, the gleefully subversive character of American musical comedy, the reckless glamor of the big-city newspaper, the mad decade of the 1920s, the work of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon—two of the greatest talents in the musical’s history—and the Wild West gangsterville that was the city of Chicago itself. The tale of a young woman who murders her departing lover and then tricks the jury into letting her off, Chicago seemed too blunt and cynical at first. Everyone agreed it was show biz at its brilliant best, yet the public still preferred A Chorus Line, with its cast of innocents and sentimental feeling. Nevertheless, the 1996 Chicago revival is now the longest-running American musical in history, and the movie version won the Best Picture Oscar. As this text looks back at Chicago’s various moving parts, including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical, we see how the American theatre serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society.

A theory of the structure of rock music is presented, addressing aspects such as tonality/key, harmony, rhythm/meter, melody, phrase structure, timbre/instrumentation, form, and emotional expression. ...
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A theory of the structure of rock music is presented, addressing aspects such as tonality/key, harmony, rhythm/meter, melody, phrase structure, timbre/instrumentation, form, and emotional expression. The book brings together ideas from the author’s previous articles but also contains substantial new material. Rock is defined broadly (as it often is) to include a wide range of late twentieth-century Anglo-American popular styles, including 1950s rock & roll, Motown, soul, “British invasion” rock, soft rock, heavy metal, disco, new wave, and alternative rock. The study largely employs the informal, intuitive methods of conventional music theory and analysis, but it is also informed by corpus data. An important component of the theory is a representation of pitches—the “line of fifths”—that sheds light on issues such as stylistic distinctions within rock, effects of surprise, and emotion. The theory also entails a model of expression with three dimensions, representing valence, energy, and tension; this proves to be a powerful tool for tracing shifts in expressive effect within songs. The theory features novel approaches to issues such as cadences, melodic-harmonic coordination, the handling of sectional boundaries, and the classification of formal types. The final two chapters present analyses of six songs and a broader consideration of rock in its historical and stylistic context.Less

The Musical Language of Rock

David Temperley

Published in print: 2018-02-22

A theory of the structure of rock music is presented, addressing aspects such as tonality/key, harmony, rhythm/meter, melody, phrase structure, timbre/instrumentation, form, and emotional expression. The book brings together ideas from the author’s previous articles but also contains substantial new material. Rock is defined broadly (as it often is) to include a wide range of late twentieth-century Anglo-American popular styles, including 1950s rock & roll, Motown, soul, “British invasion” rock, soft rock, heavy metal, disco, new wave, and alternative rock. The study largely employs the informal, intuitive methods of conventional music theory and analysis, but it is also informed by corpus data. An important component of the theory is a representation of pitches—the “line of fifths”—that sheds light on issues such as stylistic distinctions within rock, effects of surprise, and emotion. The theory also entails a model of expression with three dimensions, representing valence, energy, and tension; this proves to be a powerful tool for tracing shifts in expressive effect within songs. The theory features novel approaches to issues such as cadences, melodic-harmonic coordination, the handling of sectional boundaries, and the classification of formal types. The final two chapters present analyses of six songs and a broader consideration of rock in its historical and stylistic context.

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